Winter Squash and Gruyere Gratin

I spend hours and hours pouring through recipe books since my 16-year old daughter, Ali, announced she's a vegetarian. Trying to make sure she gets enough protein in her meals while not adding so much fat from cheese and nuts is a challenge. This recipe, in my opinion, makes 4 servings that are Entree size, not side dish size, so the calories and fat aren't as much as the bottom implies if you're serving a side dish size. Ali loves this so much that she eats it as an entree. To cut down the fat, I found fat free block swiss cheese at HyVee on 135th and Antioch. I'm sure that cuts the fat and calories significantly. Since I've never made it with the Gruyere cheese, I can't tell you how it changes the flavor. Also, I know that the baguette goes against what Bob Greene is telling us, so I'm sure if we found a whole grain or whole wheat substitute, that would make this even better for us.

I thought there were an aweful lot of steps, but in reality it was easy and quick to make. Enjoy!

Winter Squash and Gruyere Gratin

2 medium butternut squash (1 1/2 pounds each)
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1 medium leek (white part only), chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium canned broth
1/ can (12 ounces) evaporated skim milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 ounces of baguette (thinly cut into 8 small slices) or 2 slices of peasant bread (cut into 4 equal pieces), toasted
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese
8 basil leaves, shredded

Preheat the oven to 400. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place the squash, cut side up, in a baking pan. Season with 1/2 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake until the squash are tender, but not mushy, about 1 hour. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine the leek, olive oil, and 2 teaspoons of water. Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the leek is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the wine. Increase the heat to high and boil until the liquid is reduced to approximately 3 tablespoons, about 3 minutes. Stir in the stock, milk, sugar and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Using a big spooon, scoop the flesh from the squash in large pieces. Place in a medium bowl. (The recipe can be preapred to this point up to 3 hours ahead. Set aside at room temperature.)

To assembel the gratin, preheat the oven to 400. Bring the leek mixture to a boil. Spoon half of the squash into a 6- to 8-cup ovenproof casserole. Ladle half of the leek mixture over the top and cover with half of the toast and half of the Gruyere cheese. Repeat the layers with the remaining squash, leek mixture, toast, and Gruyere. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top. Bake the gratin for 30 minutes or nutil the top is bronwed and bubbly. Garnish with the basil and serve.

Note: Evaporated skim milk is whole milk from which half the water and most of the fat have been removed. It contains twice the nutrients and protein of regular skim milk.

4 Servings, 397 Calories, 21.2 gm Protein, 12.0 gm Fat, 55.5 gm Carbohydrate per Serving

Live to fight another day…

Depressed.
Fat.
Unmotivated.

That’s how I feel;
Like I’m in a constant battle.

From the lack of blogging activity around here,
Some of you may feel the same way?

So yeah, I’ve been down this week.
But I just now realized…
I’m not out.

We live to fight another day.

When you stop and think about it,
What I am going through right now,
And maybe you are too…
Is the exact reason we started the Sisterhood.

To help us through these times.
To help us remember, it’s a process…
Not a race.

Tomorrow is a new day.
A new opportunity to do better.
A new battle to be won.

I love Google

As promised, we now have an interactive calendar for the group.
It’s available to us through Google.
All this time, I really never thought of Google as anything other than a search engine.
But Au’ Contraire… it is so much more!

Before I get into the "hows" of the interactive calendar, let me point out that I did add a link to the right sidebar called "STF Calendar". You can view the calendar at this site, but you cannot interact with it. Click on the event itself for the details. To interact with the calendar, follow the instructions below.

If you are a member of this blog, you should have received an invitation to register for a Google Calendar if you do not already have one. This entails nothing more than a few quick steps; you will need your Google user I.D. and password to register. If I missed you somehow, shoot me a quick email and I’ll add you to the list.

Once you have completed that initial step, you will have access to your own Google Calendar which I believe will be named whatever your email account address is you used when you first registered.

You will also have access to our group calendar named “Sisterhood of the Travelling Fatties”. It is highlighted in pink and you can highlight your own calendar simply by clicking on the down arrow to the left of your calendar’s name. (Choose any color than pink!)

Tip: At the top of the calendar on the right side are viewing options; Day, Week, Month, 4 Day & Agenda. Choose “Month” for the best overall snapshot of what’s coming up soon. Choose "Agenda" and it will list everything we have scheduled on the calendar to date.

The two calendars will look to be combined as one, but only you will see your own personal data which also shows up on the STF calendar, not anyone else. For instance, my personal calendar is highlighted in purple. Anything I put on it will show in purple font. When I click on the STF calendar, I will see “STF Meeting on 2/12” in pink font. But if I added a Doctor’s Appt. on my calendar it would appear for me in purple font on the STF calendar as well, but none of you will see. It sounds a bit confusing I know, but it’s actually pretty groovy. (It would help tremendously if I was a better “technical writer”… but I ain’t!) Bottom line, only data in “pink” is what everyone is seeing. So choose any other color for your personal calendar please.

Once you’ve got all that figured out, let’s go one step further.
On the same page as your Google calendar, over on the left sidebar it says “My Calendars”. Be sure you are on the STF calendar, and then click on “Settings” which is right below it. Again on this page, choose the STF calendar and click on “Notifications”. This is where you can personalize your notification settings. It’s pretty self-explanatory; I clicked all 5 choices to have emailed to me. If it gets to be obnoxious I can always go back and change it.

So that’s our “Calendar Tutorial”… again I apologize for not being more literate in this area… but as Popeye says, “I am what I am!”